WEAC News and Views, February 9, 1987
For many Laona teachers a blazing school meant the destruction of a career’s worth of teaching aids.
Teachers in Laona are about to end a yearlong bout with makeshift classrooms and teaching conditions that surely qualify them and their students for a perseverance award. Thirteen months ago a blaze during Christmas vacation ended the 68-year service of the district’s high school. As the smoke billowed skyward, few in Laona considered loss of the ancient building much of a tragedy.
Although the fire took away Laona’s largest public building, it gave the district the means to build a school it could not have otherwise afforded in this town of 1,400 which recently lost its single major employer. And, some of Laona’s 28 teachers feel, the adversity of working in an impoverished setting kindled a determined spirit in staff and students alike which has actually promoted learning.
The district’s insurance policy contained a replacement value provision which made $2 million available for construction of a new high school. Initially, the Laona school board promised district
taxpayers it would not exceed that amount, a pledge
that has caused it to scale down the original plan
several times during construction and which may
prove impossible to keep.
Ironically, Laona’s last new school building was built
with insurance benefits after a fire burned the districts
elementary school in 1952. Likewise, a 1979 fire
destroyed the school bus barn which was replaced
with insurance money.
Teachers’ Work – Up in Smoke
While the fire may have netted Laona a new school
building, it destroyed a lifetime of work for many on
the high school teaching staff. Don Kircher, who teaches earth science and geology, suffered a catastrophic loss in the fire which annihilated his collection of rock specimens gathered over the past 20 years and 600 slides compiled over the same period. He remembers shifting through the rubble the day after the fire in _20 degree temperatures looking for slides that no doubt were vaporized by the fire’s heat.
Like many Laona high school teachers, lost many of his own books which he kept in the classroom. He says he still finds himself searching for books that don’t exist anymore.
Fran Killian teaches high school English and speech. She estimates that $7,600 worth of her own books, including Russian literature books she bought in Russia, fueled the blaze.
Dale Keller had taught in Laona for one year when the inferno incinerated his portfolio of artwork, slides of his art and his potter’s wheel.
Despite losing the tools of their profession, including
lesson plans developed since they began teaching,
Laona high school teachers have managed to look on
the bright side of it all. “Nobody is in a rut. We have
had to be innovated,” says Fran Killian. “I think it has
been a lesson in life for students.”
The staff agrees that students are doing better and
studying harder than before the fire. Perhaps it was
a coincidence, but Laona ACT scores were higher
than in the previous year.
Making a Classroom Out of a Church Basement.
Although high school teachers suffered the loss of
personal property in the fire, Laona’s entire 28-
member staff’s daily routine has been turned up-side
down for the past 13 months while the building is
being completed. The shortage of classrooms made
for some drastic shuffling of students, teachers and
classrooms.
It required that the elementary building become a
temporary high school and thanks to the generosity
of the town’s religious community, that the basement
of the Lutheran church and Catholic church hall
became “open classrooms” for elementary students.
Although they have done their best to create a learning environment in the Lutheran basement, Laona’s three first and second grade teachers (Jeanne Kochenderfer, Myrtle Winkelman and Kathleen Rosio) admit the limited facilities have made teaching a real challenge. Poor ventilation, two small bathrooms which flood on occasion, and a few small basement windows for natural light have made them especially anxious to return to their regular school.
On the other hand, they have discovered the advantage of working together as team teachers. Plus, they say the church basement’s kitchen facilities have permitted them to special projects with students.
Once they are moved into their new facilities and things return to normal, Laona teachers can reminisce about how they survived the great fire of Christmas 1985 and its aftermath.
~ End of Story ~
Laona’s Staff, Students Undergo Trial by Fire
